A fair exchange?

At every Passover Festival Pilate was in the habit of setting free any one prisoner the people asked for. At that time a man named Barabbas was in prison with the rebels who had committed murder in a riot. When the crowd gathered and began to ask Pilate for the usual favour, he asked them, ‘Do you want me to set free for you the king of the Jews?’ He knew very well that the chief priests had handed Jesus over to him because they were jealous.

But the chief priests stirred up the crowd to ask, instead, that Pilate set Barabbas free for them.  (verses 6-11)

Read Mark 15:1-11

Most large shopping stores are happy to exchange goods for customers if they return them in new condition. But what if a customer brought back a pair of shoes – which had been worn outside every day for a year – just because they were the wrong colour? It wouldn’t be right for the sales assistant to exchange them for a new pair. That would be an unfair exchange.

This Bible reading tells of an unfair exchange. It tells how a murderer, a political terrorist, is exchanged for an innocent, righteous man. It’s unfair. It’s crooked. But it also tells how God goes about turning sinners into saints. He exchanges them. In exchange for the life of his holy, innocent, righteous Son, he receives down-and-out rebels and no-hopers as his own dear holy, innocent, righteous sons and daughters. In exchange for Jesus, God receives you.

Heavenly Father, you did not spare your own Son but gave him up for me. Let me always live in him so that I may serve you all my life long. Amen.

by Adam Cooper, in ‘New Strength for each Day’ (LCA, Openbook, 1998)

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